Top 10 Ghostwritten Books

Search Books

No matter where you go on the planet you will find tales of the supernatural. Spirits, spooks and spectres are everywhere. However, there is one reclusive mythical creature that particularly sparks fear in literary hearts – the ghostwriter.

They are the hired guns of the publishing world, paid to produce and then melt away unseen. Words for cash – no questions asked. The work is never-ending - there are the high profile celebrities who have not picked up a book since kindergarten but now need an autobiography and the estates of dead authors, like V.C. Andrews and Robert Ludlum, who wish to keep the novels coming.

Some ghostwriters have a place in history. Carolyn Keene is as fictional as the teen sleuth that she was supposed to have created, Nancy Drew. In reality, Carolyn was a pseudonym for a series of ghostwriters who wrote book after book based on a template and an expected style.

James Patterson admits he is simply more proficient at dreaming up plots than crafting sentence after sentence. He often credits his ghostwriters as “co-authors” on his covers. Peter de Jonge is one author who used to ‘ghost’ for Patterson but has now published his novel, Shadows Still Remain.

Many ghostwriters sign non-disclosure agreements to ensure they stay in the shadows, but often the identity of the true author emerges. John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage was actually ghost-written by his speechwriter Theodore Sorenson. This was denied for years but Sorenson admitted to writing large sections of the book in his 2009 autobiography, Counselor.

Sturgeon’s Ellery Queen (a pseudonym for Frederic Dannay & Manfred B. Lee)contribution has been described as one of the best in the series. Sturgeon apparently said: “90 per cent of everything is crud.”